PHILADELPHIA:  Carver High School of Engineering and Science, a predominately minority high school (90%) in North Philadelphia, shot up an astounding 100 points on the 2002 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) scoring a 1470 compared to 1370 last year. Prior to 2002, Carver's PSSA math scores ranged from 1370 to 1340. See attached chart.

(See attached file: Carver 1998-2002 PSSA chart.xls)

Sue Tischler-Miller, Department Chair at Carver credits the raise is scores to the decision to enroll all Carver 9th and 10th graders in the Interactive Mathematics Program (IMP), a standards-based curriculum developed with funding from the National Science Foundation. (See http://www.mathimp.org.)   The students who took the PSSA in April 2002 were the first Carver class to be all enrolled in IMP.

"Carver High School and Sue Tischler-Miller were among the first schools and teachers to implement IMP nine years ago in this region. However, Carver only used IMP as a pilot and previously enrolled only about 1/3 of their students in IMP. Beginning in September 1999, however, all incoming 9th graders took IMP," said F. Joseph Merlino, Director of The Greater Philadelphia Secondary Mathematics Project, who trained Carver teachers. The freshman IMP class of 1999 were the ones who took the 2002 PSSA as juniors.

"Carver also has outstanding IMP teachers. Sue and her principal Rosalind Chivis are to be given credit for deciding to go all IMP. These Carver students are scoring as well or better than many affluent suburban high school students," said Merlino. “IMP requires extensive teacher training and administrative support. But when IMP is properly implemented and supported the results consistently speak for themselves," said Merlino.

For more information contact:

F. Joseph Merlino,
La Salle University
Philadelphia, Pa 19141
215-951-1203 (office)  610-368-7942 (cell)
http://www.gphillymath.org

Sue Miller-Tischler
Carver High School of Engineering and Science
17th and Norris St
Philadelphia, Pa
215-684-5079

References:

2002 Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA)
http://www.pde.state.pa.us/a_and_t/site/default.asp?g=0&a_and_tNav=|630|&k12Nav=|1141|

Student Achievement Results Using IMP in Philadelphia Schools (Five years of data)
http://www.gphillymath.org/StudentAchievement/Reports/AssessCostIndex.htm

Carver High School profile
http://www.paprofiles.org/pa0001/pdf/HS7023.pdf

Previous IMP Student Achievement Results at Carver
(See attached file: Carver Open Ended Math & Science.xls)

IMP Teacher Training Requirements
http://www.gphillymath.org/StudentAchievement/Reports/SupportData/ImplementStandards.htm